Permaculture has many definitions, and explaining it can get quite complicated quickly. That’s why I like to simplify things.
At its core, from the perspective of a landowner, think of permaculture as a design framework that helps you create a property that’s less dependent on external inputs, that’s efficient and productive, and that exists in harmony with nature (because it’s part of nature).
A lot of people call what they do permaculture, without fully understanding what applied permaculture actually entails.
That’s why today I want to introduce you to a ‘5-key-features permaculture property checklist’ so that you can see if you can proudly say (and show others) that what you’re doing is permaculture!
Below I’ll list and explain each feature, and you think through whether you can tick the box, or that is something you need to improve.
Ok, let’s begin.
1. Ethical
Illustration: Permaculture Principles
The ultimate goal of building a permaculture property is to enhance the wellbeing of all living beings impacted by the project: you, your family, the people in the local community, and of course the local ecosystem with its microflora and -fauna.
It involves thinking far beyond the immediate short-term benefits, being concerned with the wellbeing of future generations.
With that in mind, on your permaculture property, every element, activity, and system must be able to pass through the three permaculture ethics – care of people, care of the earth, and return of the surplus.
This means, for example, that you can’t have an eco-tourism area on your property with an “animal sanctuary” managed by low-paid workers, where you keep wild deer and boar in captivity so that tourists can experience feeding them by hand, all while you use the profits to fund your vacation in Bali – and call that permaculture.
Action step:
Think about your permaculture property.
Are you doing something that’s harming the earth?
Are you doing something that’s harming people?
Are you returning the surplus in some way?
2. Interconnected
Illustration: Paul Kearsley
One of the main characteristics of a permaculture property is that all of its different components are interconnected, working together as an integrated system. There is continuous cycling whereby the outputs of one component fulfill the inputs of another.
This eliminates or at least minimizes the amount of labor, energy, or resources you need to invest in providing the inputs or eliminating the waste.
On a traditional small farm or homestead, generally, nothing is actually connected to anything else. There might be chickens, pigs, cows, ducks, gardens, or orchards… but they’re all separate and usually located far from each other. As no component supplies the needs of others, it’s up to the farmer or homesteader to do all that extra work.
Your permaculture property on the other hand should have needs of every element met within the system. So, for example, if the pig, chicken, or cow needs water and food, you need to find the elements within the system that will satisfy these needs.
And in the same manner, you should have yields of every element used within the system. So, for example, if your animals are producing manure, then the system or another component within the system must be able to use that manure.
Each cleverly designed linkage between design components means one less job for you. Meaning you are less like a traditional farm or homestead and more of a permaculture farm or homestead.
Action step:
Take a minute or two, and think about whether or not you are making these types of connections on your property. Do you have open loops?
3. Energy Efficient
One of the most commonly recognized characteristics of a permaculture property is permaculture zoning, i.e., splitting the property into different areas of use.
This is fundamentally about the intelligent use of energy and resources within the property.
You see, most property owners will place the different components of their property in a random location. For example, a house might be in one area, but a garden where they can pick fresh salad is 300 feet away.
Thoughtless positioning like this adds unnecessary mileage, and they end up walking hundreds of kilometers per year going to and from their gardens, barns, orchards, chickens… or skipping that salad for lunch after a second thought.
Your permaculture property needs to be way more efficient!
You should be placing various components based on their frequency of use and required management. The more you use something, the closer it is to the center of your activity. The less you use it, the further away it goes.
The center of activity will typically be your house, and everything on the property is then organized in relation to that center, denoting the whole property into zones 1 – 5. The area around the house represents zone 1, as it’s the most frequently used area of the site, while zone 5 is total wilderness, as there is no human activity there at all.
Action step:
Think about whether you have applied the zoning concept to your property. Are you making the most efficient use of your time and labor while working and managing your property?
4. Adapted to natural forces
Illustration: David Holmgren
In addition to managing the energy within the property, as a permaculturist, you need to pay special attention to energies coming from outside your property boundaries. Specifically, incoming wild energies you don’t have any control over, such as winds, wildfire, noise, wildlife etc.…
Unlike conventional folks, in permaculture we recognize that our property is part of a greater whole, the local ecosystem with its biome, the microclimate with its weather pattern, the micro-location with its human culture… Each with its positive and negative influences on our property.
Since you cannot directly affect these external energies, and they are unavoidable, you need to figure out how best to interact with them so that you can take advantage of them or at least mitigate their effects.
Essentially you can adopt three strategies in dealing with these outside energies:
- Block or deflect them – for example, create shields that prevent them from entering the property, e.g. a perimeter fence to exclude wildlife or windbreaks to mitigate strong winds.
- Catch and store/recycle – for example, opening up towards the sun and catching its energy, storing it in a battery bank, or opening towards the wind and catching its energy, using it for pumping water from low elevation to high elevation.
- Channel them through – for example, draining away contaminated water via culverts or sending offsite any other type of pollutant that you can’t beneficially use on the property
So think about these external energy flows and whether you have taken into consideration what to do about them. Have you placed your activities, systems, and elements to block, catch, or channel these energies?
5. Resilient
Illustration: Whole Systems Design
The final key characteristic of a permaculture property is that it has resilient systems allowing the farm or homestead to operate in the face of disruption.
In your design, you should deliberately build redundancies for the essential property functions (for example, water supply) so that you have backups and even backups for your backups, thus eliminating weak links that could jeopardize your operation.
In practice, this means that you should have multiple design components that serve or support your critical property functions.
For example, if water is a critical function for your property, you would have multiple systems for water management. You might have a well and a pump tapping into an aquifer, ponds capturing surface runoff, water tanks capturing roof runoff, access to a creek, or even a municipal water supply.
There would be multiple ways to provide water for your needs, creating redundancy in achieving that function on our property.
The same applies to creating redundancies for all critical functions of your property, and you should strive to have at least two ways to serve a function. The overarching rule of thumb would be that the more essential the function, the more backups it should have.
Action step:
Think about what might be the main functions of your property. Do you have in-built redundancies for these to hedge against potential disruptions?
All right, I hope I gave you some food for thought today.
Keep these features in mind as you are designing or “permaculturising” your property and you’ll create a thriving, and productive permaculture (eco)system that you can proudly showcase to others.
If you need extra help with designing your property in this way, I suggest you sign up for my newsletter where I’ll be sharing my best design tips which you won’t find anywhere on the internet.
Talk soon,
-William
